Rolling this out....it's out for Windows now, Mac coming soon -- and Mac patch is available now as well.

* Water missing in beaver side pond on Slough Creek.
* Amethyst map is missing much of the ground clutter (downed logs etc).
* Willows in Lost River glow at night.
* Terrain and water issues.

Today we are releasing the next big update of WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition, with three new features — Age Perks, Ironwolf, and Beavers — plus dozens of smaller improvements and bugfixes. Get an overview in the devblog video and then dive in and try them for yourself! Many thanks to all the beta testers who provided essential feedback over the past weeks. We really appreciate your help!



Learn more about these new features in the WolfQuest Knowledge Base:
* Age Perks: https://support.wolfquest.org/help/age-perks
* Ironwolf: https://support.wolfquest.org/help/ironwolf
* Beavers: https://support.wolfquest.org/help/hunting-tips


* Beavers now live along the Lamar River, Slough Creek, and in the Lost River beaver pond. They are most active at dawn and dusk. When you find a beaver trail, follow the tutorial tip to lie in wait and (hopefully) ambush one. (More info in Game Help: Hunting Beavers)
* Age Perks system offers a selection of physical, clout, and wisdom bonuses for each year of your wolf's life. Once a year, you have the option to advance your wolf in age by one year and select from a new set of perks. On your birthday (in April, just before your pups are born) you will be presented with the Age Perks menu, where you can view all of the Age Perks available at each age. You can select up to three new Age Perks if you wish to advance to the next age. If you advance through the years, your final choice will be whether to advance to age eight, which will make your wolf an Elder Wolf who, at some point, will die. (More info in Game Help: Age Perks)
* Ironwolf mode: In the real world, wolves are one false move or unlucky kick away from death. Now you too can live life on the edge by choosing Ironwolf mode when creating a wolf. This is a hardcore mode for players who really want to live the life of a wild wolf. Ironwolves have only one save, and upon dying will be permanently dead. (More info in Game Help: Ironwolf)
* New "Reminisce" mode: After an Elder Wolf dies, older saved games (from before age eight) use this mode so you can revisit your mate and pups and relive memories, but you cannot save your game.

* Scents: New system for floating scents and ground scent tracks. This should look just like the old scent system, but without some problems that the old system caused (slow performance on Intel integrated graphics; on some newer GPUs, after several hours of playing, screen sometimes would go black, or possibly white, or screwy in some way).
* Revised adaptive music system: Eliminates bugs with out-of-sync tracks. Also modest reduction in memory load from music tracks.
* Enabled headlook when wolf is sitting and lying down (latter only in initial pose).
* Trees in Basic Sky & Vegetation mode move more appropriately with the wind.
* Tweaks to snow coverage on trees (Enhanced mode only).
* Aspen trees in LR now have fall colors, as they did in WQ Classic.
* Scent tracks now disappear quickly when the source dies. (The way they persisted longer was a feature of the new scent system, but it is understandably frustrating, so now they fade at a faster rate. We don't want to remove them instantly or you get the "scent tracks disappear suddenly" bug which is also annoying.)
* New Amethyst episode intro text when starting a new game with an experienced wolf.
* New shader on big glacial erratics (boulders) that eliminates occasional harsh look to them.
* Distant views of landscape are nicer (smoother and softer ground cover, using linear blends instead of heightmap blends).
* Added bite-sfx when biting beaver, fox, and coyote.
* Music ducks (lowers in volume) when alert sounds play.
* Eliminated areas with stretched or discordant texturing in Slough Creek (the creek itself) and the McBride feeder creek.
* Better water effects when wolf is swimming.
* In Amethyst, Very Large Objects (mainly the cliff rocks) now get dynamic snow even on Very Low quality level.
* In Setup New Game, moved Lost River Classic below Slough Creek.
* Updated version of vegetation renderer (for Enhanced Vegetation mode) generally makes trees look better at a distance, but there are a few quirks to refine.
* Enabled Right Ctrl key input for Walk/Stalk (was only Left Ctrl).
* Added music stingers when killing beaver, fox, and coyote.
* Increased moose swimming speed.

* Multiplayer: Client wolf in stranger territory is not teleported to host when host forces sleep.
* Multiplayer: Host-triggered sleep fails if a client wolf has a meat chunk in mouth.
* When loading MP save, sometimes you get the SP Setup options instead of the MP options.
* Renaming a wolf by only changing the case will result in wolf name being "NPC wolf" in-game.
* Sometimes the family snapshot prompts can appear incorrectly while playing.
* Pups can get stuck, motionless, when swimming against the current.
* Sometimes pups follow mate when the "Raise pups" quest starts.
* Sometimes pups will go into flooded den on their own accord, even when they refuse if so commanded.
* Invisible wolf attacks player-wolf.
* In certain spots, scent posts get destroyed soon after they were created.
* Can't claim territory when competitors are preparing an attack.
* Elder Wolves will have smaller litters than they did when younger.
* Grizzly cub carcass lacks a name.
* Pup icon does not appear on map when moving to a new rendezvous site.
* During the journey quests, dispersal wolves stalk wolf pups and are considered a dangerous predators, and are confused about their purpose.
* Sometimes the mate heads off on a hunting excursion immediately after the pups leave the den for the first time. (Also, some mates go hunting too frequently, so we have set a minimum time at home.)
* Pups gradually increase in size as they grow older, but this size increase was applied only when loading a save, not incrementally during gameplay
* In Basic Sky & Veg mode, in main menu, when in Eye Customization, scene color and brightness are incorrect.
* In Pack Stats, mate's age is truncated if pack name is longish.
* Mate doesn't catch hares anymore.
* In certain situations, camera gets stuck circling above the pack after the end of Journey to Rendezvous Site quest.
* Increased hunger threshold on mate so they will eat even if not very hungry.
* DLC coats are somewhat more likely, instead of very more likely, to be assigned to dispersal wolves and pups.
* Permanent bull elk carcass near LR spawn point.
* One meat chunk floats out in front of the wolf's mouth.
* Water clips in headcam and scent view.
* No grass or sage on Lamar River island.
* Many terrain and water issues.

_______________

WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) The mobile version will come after the game (including Slough Creek) is completed on PC/Mac platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!

We are getting close to releasing the next game update v1.0.7, featuring Age Perks, Ironwolf, and Beavers! But we hit a few snags so it’s not quite ready yet and will remain in public beta for a few more days. In the meantime, enjoy this beaver, whose day is also not going as planned.




WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) The mobile version will come after the game (including Slough Creek) is completed on PC/Mac platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!

No devblog video this week -- we are keeping plenty busy with the recent public beta feedback about Age Perks, Ironwolf, and beavers.

We appreciate the great response to last week's devblog about Age Perks, and in fact, due to player comments, we've made a few enhancements to the Elder Wolf experience (Elder Wolf is what we're now calling the old wolves after they advance to age eight).

We’d love to hear more about how players playing the public beta are liking the Age Perks. Tell us how well the specific perks are working! Which are your favorites? Any suggestions for improving a perk? Let us know in the comments or send us F11 feedback.

To get the beta build:

1) In the Steam app, go to your Library, then right-click on the WolfQuest: AE name in the left column and choose Properties.
2) Then go to the Betas tab and select the WQ current Beta option in the pulldown. No password is necessary. Steam should then start downloading it. Later you can switch back to the public version in that Betas tab, by selecting NONE in that pulldown.

Thank you to everyone who has jumped into the public beta to try out these new features and test them out.

We hope to release this next update in a week or so.

1.0.7 Public Beta (beta 20, released 18 April) is now available in the Steam Public Beta branch (See instructions below on how to access it.)


Beta 30 is now available now for Windows, Mac is still on beta29d.

NOTES:
* MP version incremented, so you can't play with others who are on the last released version. Any saved games from this version will not work in the previous version, due to many changes and additions, but saves that you have not opened in the beta will work in the previous version.


* Age Perks system offers a selection of physical, clout, and wisdom bonuses for each year of your wolf's life. Once a year, you have the option to advance your wolf in age by one year and select from a new set of perks. On your birthday (in April, just before your pups are born) you will be presented with the Age Perks menu, where you can view all of the Age Perks available at each age. You can select up to three new Age Perks if you wish to advance to the next age. If you advance through the years, your final choice will be whether to advance to age eight, which will make your wolf an Elder Wolf who at some point will die. (More info in Game Help: Age Perks)
* Ironwolf mode: In the real world, wolves are one false move or unlucky kick away from death. Now you too can live life on the edge by choosing Ironwolf mode when creating a wolf. This is a hardcore mode for players who really want to live the life of a wild wolf. Irownolves have only one save, and upon dying will be permanently dead. (More info in Game Help: Ironwolf)
* Beavers now live along the Lamar River, Slough Creek, and in the Lost River beaver pond. They are most active at dawn and dusk. When you find a beaver trail, follow the tutorial tip to lie in wait and (hopefully) ambush one.

See recent news announcements for more about Age Perks, Ironwolf, and beavers.

* Scents: New system for floating scents and ground scent tracks. This should look just like the old scent system, but without some problems that the old system caused (slow performance on Intel integrated graphics; on some newer GPUs, fter several hours of playing, screen sometimes would go black, or possibly white, or screwy in some way).
* Revised adaptive music system: Eliminates bugs with out-of-sync tracks. Also modest reduction in memory load from music tracks.
* Enabled headlook when wolf is sitting and lying down (latter only in initial pose).
* Trees in Basic Sky & Vegetation mode move more appropriately with the wind.
* Tweaks to snow coverage on trees (Enhanced mode only).
* Aspen trees in LR now have fall colors, as they did in WQ Classic.
* Scent tracks now disappear quickly when the source dies. (The way they persisted longer was a feature of the new scent system, but it is understandably frustrating, so now they fade at a faster rate. We don't want to remove them instantly or you get the "scent tracks disappear suddenly" bug which is also annoying.)
* New Amethyst episode intro text when starting a new game with an experienced wolf.
* New shader on big glacial erratics (boulders), hopefully will eliminate occasional harsh look to them.
* Distant views of landscape are nicer (smoother and softer ground cover, using linear blends instead of heightmap blends).
* Added bite-sfx when biting beaver, fox, and coyote.* Music ducks (in volume) when alert sounds play.

* Multiplayer: Client wolf in stranger territory is not teleported to host when host forces sleep.
* Multiplayer: Host-triggered sleep fails if a client wolf has a meat chunk in mouth.
* When loading MP save, sometimes you get the SP Setup options instead of the MP options.
* Renaming a wolf by only changing the case will result in wolf name being "NPC wolf" in-game.
* Sometimes the family snapshot prompts can appear incorrectly while playing.
* Pups can get stuck, motionless, when swimming against the current.
* Sometimes pups follow mate when the "Raise pups" quest starts.
* Sometimes pups will go into flooded den on their own accord, even when they refuse if so commanded.
* Invisible wolf attacks player-wolf.
* In certain situations, camera gets stuck circling above the pack after the end of Journey to Rendezvous Site quest.
* Increased hunger threshold on mate so they will eat even if not very hungry.
* DLC coats are somewhat more likely, instead of very more likely, to be assigned to dispersal wolves and pups.
* Permanent bull elk carcass near LR spawn point.
* One meat chunk floats out in front of the wolf's mouth.
* Water clips in headcam and scent view.
* No grass or sage on Lamar River island.
* Many terrain and water issues.


* Reduced number of beavers spawned in Amethyst.
* Made beaver trails more evident on terrain on low graphics quality settings.
* Fattened up the beaver just a bit.
* Added controller inputs for lying in wait and holding still for beaver ambush.
* Enabled Right Ctrl key input for Walk/Stalk (was only Left Ctrl).
* Added music stingers when killing beaver, fox, and coyote.

* Music volume inconsistencies.
* Beaver carcass collider is not aligned with carcass.
* in Amethyst, beavers flee parallel to river instead of heading into it.
* Mate doesn't catch hares anymore.
* Mate's age is not reliably used when starting a new game in Slough Creek.
* Beaver Game Help entry has placeholder instead of actual input symbol.
* Odd underwater creek near beaver dam in flood season.
* Typos.


NOTE: Age 8 is not available currently. It should be in next beta build.

* Age Perks: Youthful Prowess: Reduced threatening effect some.

* Advancements in age are not recorded in autosaves. (So if you advanced in age and didn't do a manual save, you'd be back at previous save when reloading that save.)
* Sometimes mate teleports somewhere else when pups are born.
* In Basic Sky & Veg mode, in main menu, when in Eye Customization, scene color and brightness are incorrect.
* Moose calves in summer do not show health meter.
* Beaver scent glow color doesn't match floating scent color.
* In Pack Stats, mate's age is truncated if pack name is longish.
* In Age Perks panel, sometimes wolf image is oversized.
* Water issues (weird-looking underwater creeks, excess water sound effects).



* Age 8 is available once you (and/or your mate) reach that birthday (with mortal consequences eventually).

* In Multiplayer, players cannot revive after being nearly killed.
* Snow on big boulders is too dark and shiny.



* When advancing in age, you can now choose fewer than three perks if you want.

* Perks are not applied or saved when advancing in age -- ack! Very sorry about that! Unfortunately, we can't retrieve those selections made in the last beta so you will have to finish SC again in order to advance in age and choose perks again.



* Beavers will now occasionally stop and wash their face.
* New wolf pose when holding very still as beaver approaches.
* On existing wolves in Wolf Customization, Ironwolf buttons are dimmed to make it clear that they are not selectable.
* In the notification about selecting fewer than three perks, "choose more" is now the default option.

* Newborn fawns and elk calves emit scents.
* Beaver can't find a suitable spot to place branch on lodge.
* Beaver body scent is red rather than brown like the ground and floating scents.
* Beaver fur and carcass gore
* Ambush bonus damage applies to all animals, not only beavers.
* In Age Perks panel, order of perks shifts from one age to another.
* After player-wolf becomes an Elder Wolf, Attribute +/- buttons in Wolf Customization should not be changeable, but are.

Today’s dev blog introduces WolfQuest’s newest feature: Age Perks!

Instead of a standard XP system, we designed Age Perks to give players the option to experience the life of a wolf in a more naturalistic way. You start as a two year old wolf, bursting with vim and vigor, and can now progress through the years to become an elder wolf, gaining wisdom and insight into the ways of the world. The Age Perks system offers a selection of physical, clout, and wisdom bonuses for each year of your wolf's life.



Once a year, you will have the option to advance your wolf in age by one year and select from a new set of perks. On your birthday (in April, just before your pups are born) you will be presented with the Age Perks menu, where you can view all of the Age Perks available at each age. You can select up to three new Age Perks if you wish to advance to the next age. This choice only presents itself once per year, so be sure to think carefully about your decision.

You are not required to advance in age. If you fear the effects of age, you can remain as a two-year-old wolf, or even a three- or four-year-old wolf, for as long as you like. But, if you choose to advance in age, it is a permanent commitment. Wolves cannot grow younger, after all.

Age Perks are coming soon in v1.0.7, along with Ironwolf and beavers:

IRONWOLF: . In the real world, wolves are one false move or unlucky kick away from death. In WolfQuest, you too can live life on the edge by choosing Ironwolf mode when creating a wolf. This is a hardcore mode for players who really want to live the life of a wild wolf. See last week’s video to learn more: Ironwolf https://youtu.be/zWJnK_ogjrM

BEAVERS: Beavers will finally be getting busy in WolfQuest! Look for beavers and their dams and lodges in watery place. Try your skill and patience with ambush hunting, a completely different way to catch prey.

Learn all about the new beavers in these two videos:
• Beavers (Beeaaverrrss) https://youtu.be/YCXUBaZ6SQM
• Another Dam Video https://youtu.be/0mJQr2ZJgpM

PUBLIC BETA: All this will be on Steam in public beta very soon – watch for it in the coming days!

______________

WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) The mobile version will come after the game (including Slough Creek) is completed on PC/Mac platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!

It's time for another chance to win a free copy of WolfQuest! Lucky winners will receive a free copy of WolfQuest 2.7 (and PC/Mac users will also get WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition Early Access for PC and Mac)! Winners can choose to get any version of the game (Mac/Windows, Android, iOS, Kindle).

If you prefer, you can choose the new Yellowstone Wolf Coat DLC (only for WolfQuest: AE for PC/Mac) or the WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras.

Email your username (any username is fine, we just have to know what to call the winners) and your answer to the question: "What are three interesting facts about wolves?" to the email address contest1@wolfquest.org

All entries must be received before midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on Tuesday, April 20, 2021..

Winners are selected randomly from complete entries. Please enter only once in each monthly contest. Each complete entry will be assigned a number. We will then use a random-number generator to generate three numbers. The entries bearing those numbers will each win a free copy of the game.

Ironwolf is a new game mode coming in the next update of WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition! This is a hardcore mode for players who really want to live the life of a wild wolf, always one false move or unlucky kick away from death. As an ironwolf, you only live once!



You can select Ironwolf mode only when creating a new wolf. Then, when you start a new game with an ironwolf, only Challenging and Accurate difficulty levels are available options. (Playing Ironwolf on Easy would be rather silly.) From that point on, you can have only one save file. The game auto-saves every two minutes, and you can manually save as well, updating that single autosave. If your ironwolf survives the entire Slough Creek arc, you can start a new game in Amethyst Mountain or Slough Creek to continue it's life for another year. But if it dies, it is dead. Dead dead dead. You can visit it again in the My Wolves carousel, but you cannot start a new game with it.

We expect to release this update later in April, and it will include Ironwolf, beavers, and another exciting new feature that we have not yet announced. Stay tuned!

_______________

WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) The mobile version will come after the game (including Slough Creek) is completed on PC/Mac platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!

Beavers are coming along. It turns out they are more complicated than one might expect. First of all, they are semi-aquatic so their movement patterns and behaviors are different than all the other WolfQuest animals — as is how wolves hunt them, We are drawing on recent discoveries by the Voyageurs Wolf Project about wolf predation on beavers, which means a new hunting mode: ambush! As always, Tommi is crafting the balance of naturalistic behavior and fun gameplay. Beavers should be ready to release…pretty soon!



* Learn more about how wolves hunt beavers from the Voyageur Wolf Project!
* Watch the full video: Can beavers see wolves waiting in ambush?
* Trent Stangers video of a wolf attacking a beaver.

_________________

WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) The mobile version will come after the game (including Slough Creek) is completed on PC/Mac platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!

No dev blog video this week but the new "Ironwolf" feature is getting closer, thanks to Mikko. Intrepid players will soon be able to select this option when creating a wolf and truly live the life of a wild wolf -- one death is all you get and it's game over.

Also this week, Andrei has been overhauling the music system, switching to a different method of playing adaptive music to eliminate unsynced tracks -- so not super exciting, but will be a relief to the ears.

Tommi did more work on beavers, then switched to finishing up his part of a new unannounced feature (which should be ready to show within a few weeks!).

Dave, Susan, and George have been doing various aspects of design and testing of Ironwolf and this unannounced new feature.  

If you are looking for ways to support game development, spread the word about the the new Yellowstone Wolf Coat DLC and/or write a nice review on Steam. Thanks, everybody. We couldn't do it without you!